1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to motion sickness management systems and, more specifically, to eyewear such as glasses or goggles for treating and/or preventing motion sickness.
2. Background of the Invention
Motion sickness is a well known malady that often occurs due to exposure to motion in the environment. Motion sickness is likely to occur on boats subject to rolling motion, space station activities, car travel, train travel, and the like. The symptoms may include vertigo or nausea. There is a wide variation between different individuals in sensitivity to motion sickness. Moreover for those persons affected, the symptoms can range from quite severe to minimal. There are various prior art theories as to the cause of motion sickness. Some of these theories are discussed hereinafter.
Traditional treatment for motion sickness has relied substantially on two primary methods: (1) adaptation, wherein individuals are repeatedly exposed to a motion environment known to induce sickness, or (2) drugs used to prevent the development of symptoms. Both methods have significant problems.
The adaptation method requires weeks (or even months) of exposure time to the provocative environment. Even after treatment, the individual may only be resistant to motion in that specific environment. For operation in microgravity environments, preflight adaptation may be effective for some individuals. However preflight adaptation requires a substantial investment in crew time and resources, and it is currently unknown about the effects of preflight adaptation during long duration flights. In-flight centrifugation of spacecraft or space stations may be the ultimate vestibular countermeasure, however, rapid implementation at this time is impracticable, will require significant amounts of time on-orbit to implement, and it is unlikely that centrifugation without visual-vestibular stimulation will succeed.
Drugs used for the treatment of motion sickness have significant side effects, e.g., drowsiness. Drugs can only be used in situations where these side effects are not a factor. For instance, persons who must be active or alert are not able to take such medications. Also, due to other undesirable side effects, some people are not able to take certain drugs. In addition, various other remedies are often proposed. For instance, medications and devices are available off-the-shelf. Some of these remedies are questionable in their treatment ability (meaning that there are no scientific empirical tests that demonstrate how well these products may work when compared against a placebo, nor what their effect may be in different motion environments). However, it has been observed by the inventors that devices such as wrist bands, either for applying pressure to suspected pressure points or applying an electric current to suspected pressure points, are not effective.
Research performed more than 20 years ago to investigate adaptation was conducted by having the subjects wear prism glasses that reversed vision in the horizontal plane (Jones and Mandl, 1981). It was discovered that when wearing these left-right reversing prisms many subjects would develop symptoms like those of motion sickness. Due to the variation in persons and motion environments, it was not clear if these symptoms would be replicable in actual motion environments. In one aspect of this testing, it was found that the symptoms were avoided if the visual surroundings were illuminated with a brief stroboscopic flash designed to provide a 3 μsec view of the visual scene. The flashes were kept brief to avoid any slip of an image on the retina, which is theorized to be related to motion sickness. It was also found that adaptation occurred during stroboscopic illumination, suggesting that mechanisms other than retinal slip may be involved in adapting to changes in the vestibular system. While the results were of interest, the use of stroboscopic flashes, except in the laboratory environment, does not provide a means for controlling motion sickness, even assuming the results are extended to motion environments.
Manufacturers presently sell LCD shutter glasses wherein the two lenses each operate independently, typically alternately, in order to produce a stereoscopic effect when viewing a computer screen. However, such LCD shutter glasses cannot be utilized to prevent motion sickness, and in some cases, have been found to cause discomfort especially when used for extended durations.
Various theories and devices intended for prevention of motion sickness are shown in the following patents.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,966,680, issued Oct. 12, 1999, to Hanan Butnaru, discloses a device and method which operates as an artificial labyrinth to eliminate sensory mismatch between the natural labyrinth/vestibular system and the vision system of an individual. The present invention provides an alternative means for the user to determine the true orientation of his body with respect to the surrounding environment. The method can be effected by means of a device which senses true body orientation and displays corresponding visual orientation cues that the brain can use to confirm other visual position information. The display can be projected into space in front of the user, directly onto the user's retina, or effected by pictorial scene averaging. The device is particularly useful in the rehabilitation treatment of persons suffering from vestibular nervous system defect or damage, and in providing relief to those suffering from the symptoms of nausea and/or vertigo which are often experienced as a result of the aforementioned sensory mismatch.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,067,941, issued Nov. 26, 1991, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,929,228, issued May 29, 1990, to Katherine A. Hendricks, disclose an anti-motion sickness apparatus which includes motion simulating means for providing a visually discernible wave motion image to create visually discernible orientation information for the user to confirm the inner ear information of the user, thereby preventing or at least greatly alleviating, the occurrence of motion sickness. A device helps position the motion simulating means in the field of view of the user. The method of use includes exposing the motion simulating means to the field of view of the user.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,829,446, issued Nov. 3, 1998, to John R. Tiffany, discloses a simulator which provides competing and opposing stimuli for objects appearing to approach or retreat from the user in order to reduce simulator sickness. A simulator controller monitors the pixels taken up by an object. When an object appears to take up more pixels, the controller interprets the object as appearing to approach the user. The controller inserts a complementary object which appears to do the opposite of the primary object detected by the simulator controller. Both objects are displayed on a video display viewed by the user.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,275,998 B1, issued Aug. 21, 2001, to David Tromble, discloses a vision occluding eye shield which completely blocks the peripheral vision of the wearer to the discernment of motion and which blocks most or all of the superior field of vision of the wearer, and preferably also blocks an upper portion of the inferior field of vision of the wearer, to the discernment of motion. When worn by a vehicle passenger the device prevents car sickness by blocking perception of objects passing through the peripheral field of vision in the side windows and through the front window, while allowing the wearer to focus on tasks or objects within the vehicle by looking through the unoccluded portion, or to look out the vehicle windows by slightly tilting the head back.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,647,835, issued Jul. 15, 1997, to Michael Martineau, discloses an apparatus and method for preventing motion sickness. The apparatus comprises a blinder attached to a support and positioned for confining the vision of a person susceptible to motion sickness to block all visual information indicative of motion.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,228,021, issued May 8, 2001, to Bruce Kania, discloses a method and apparatus used for relieving motion sickness, wherein a sensor senses a motion of an object and a sensory converter coupled to the sensor and converts the sensed motion to corresponding sensory signals for presentation to a user. The sensory signals include audio signals, display signals, white noise signals, pink noise signals, brown noise signals, and audio tone signals. The audio signals, white noise signals, pink noise signals, and brown noise sensory signals have a variation in spectral emphasis in proportion to the sensed motion, such as by varying a bandwidth, a center frequency, and an amplitude of a first range of the sensory signals. The display signals have a variation in a display characteristic and the audio tone signals have a variation in time intervals between successive audio tones. The audio tones may also include audio messages containing words. The sensory signals are used to resolve a conflict between vestibular, ocular, and proprioceptive inputs of the user, thus relieving motion sickness.
The above described prior art does not show the solution provided by the present invention. As taught by the present invention, it would be desirable to provide a relatively simple device that can be used without training. It would be desirable that the device be useable in every environment where motion sickness may be a factor including environments ranging from space flight to boating or cars. It would be desirable that this device results in very minimal or no side effects for practically everyone. It would be desirable that the device permit an operator to operate equipment including planes, boats, and/or a space station. It would be desirable that adaptation to the environment occur as the device is used.
Those skilled in the art have long sought and will appreciate the present invention that addresses these and other problems.